ABSOLUTE ASCENDANCY

Commencing operation . . .

Overview

A bit of sad news on my end. A couple of weeks ago, my digital grand piano up and died on me. I knew the day would eventually arrive, but that expectation didn’t do much to lessen the blow on my heart. I purchased it second (or third) hand from Sheargold’s Pianos, back in 2015. It was a shop I used to frequent several years ago, and I still retain friendly relations with the owner.

At the time of purchase, I was told upfront that the technology was incredibly dated, and at some stage in the future, the electronics would likely fail. Hence, I was able to purchase it for the incredibly low price of £595, including free delivery and assembly.

What a bargain!

The cabinet itself is likely worth at least a grand.

For the next five years, I put that piano to work on an almost daily basis, steadily grinding away in the refines of solitude, building up my skills. I got a lot of mileage out of that piano before it finally bit the dust.

What to do Now?

I needed a replacement instrument. Three years ago, I donated my old keyboard to a work colleague with the notion that I could have it back if I ever needed it again. Of course, I had no intention to retrieve the instrument for the foreseeable future, but it would seem that the time had presented itself to me when I would need to reclaim my old keyboard.

I hadn’t been in contact with this old work colleague in three years, but fortunately, we established a friendly rapport upon reconnecting, and I was invited to his home to hang out and collect my keyboard.

I think it is excellent how two people can instantly reconnect like that after being out of contact for years. We caught up over hot chocolate and cake, and then played a few games of Skip-bo with his niece. Skip-bo is a similar kind of game to UNO, both in terms of overall objective and game length. We played a few games, my friend winning all of them! It was a good bit of fun to end the evening.

How does it Fare?

I have set up my keyboard, and you can view my latest piano practice in the video below.

I had a bit of an off-day, so unfortunately not the best practice session I’ve recorded. I prefer the action on the keyboard in comparison to the digital grand, surprisingly. I find it more comfortable for my fingers to glide across the keys.

Sadly, I can’t say the same about the speaker system. Sometimes when I play a section with a lot of notes or hold the sustain pedal, the speakers can generate a static type noise, which was never an issue with the digital grand. It is particularly noisy at around 11:30 in the video above.

I do have a potential solution, though. I can try and hook up a pair of external speakers sometime next month to see whether that remedies the problem.

Conclusion

Life deals you lemons, and you make lemonade. It is unfortunate for me that my digital grand has died, but at least I have my old keyboard back and can continue my regular practice.

Mission complete – Overlord Drakow signing out.